Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an occupant transfer apparatus for a vehicle, comprising a transfer board which is provided between a seat and a door in such a way as to be raisable and lowerable and to be foldable.
Description of the Related Art
The following apparatus is publicly known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-82568. The apparatus includes: vertical rails arranged between a vehicle seat and a door; a lift base which rises and lowers along the vertical rails by use of drive force of a motor; and an assist seat supported on the lift base in such a way as to be turnable between a horizontally outward position and a vertically upward position. The assist seat with an assisted person sitting thereon is raised and lowered between the height of a wheelchair and the height of the vehicle seat, so as to assist transfer of the assisted person from the wheelchair onto the vehicle seat and transfer of the assisted person from the vehicle seat onto the wheelchair.
However, the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-82568 uses drive force of the motor to raise and lower the assist seat, and thus requires a motor, a battery, wires, a control device, and so on. This complicates the structure and hence leads to a problem of increased weight and cost.